News

Press release - 21 October 2024 A CMS Vienna team led by partner Florian Mayer provided comprehensive legal advice to the owners of Austrian data & AI service provider PASO Solutions in the context of its acquisition by Dataciders, a leading provider of data & AI solutions with more than 850 employees in Germany, Austria and Bulgaria. The sale closed on 10 September 2024. The parties have agreed not to disclose the details of the transaction. “We are pleased that we got to advise the sellers on this forward-looking move, and that our in­ter­dis­cip­lin­ary expertise and experienced team contributed to successfully closing the deal," said Florian Mayer, a partner at CMS Vienna and member of the Corporate Transactions team. Headquartered in Hohenzell, PASO Solutions develops and implements cus­tom­er-spe­cif­ic software solutions in data & AI, leveraging domain expertise and the capacity to deliver end-to-end solutions. Together with Dataciders, PASO provides customised solutions to turn data-based decisions into a true competitive edge. It also offers services for data management, data integration and real-time monitoring. A recognised IT service provider, PASO has now been acquired by the Dataciders Group, which aims to sustainably drive its growth and further expand its presence in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The CMS team provided extensive legal advice on all aspects of the transaction, in particular negotiating the purchase agreement and the future involvement of the PASO Solutions team. In addition to lead partner Florian Mayer (Corporate/M&A), the transaction team included partner Lukas Peissl (Corporate Litigation), senior associate Thomas Aspalter (Tax), associate Rebecca Herlitz (Corporate/M&A) and associate Sebastian Aschl (Corporate Litigation). The buyer side was advised by Hermann Schneeweiss (Schneeweiss Weixelbaum Rechtsanwälte GmbH).

European M&A activity shows signs of recovery

We have played a significant role in Serbia’s first strategic partnership in the renewable energy sector.

Press release - 16 September 2024

Press release - 9 September 2024

Press release - 20 August 2024

Press release - 19 August 2024

Resilient deal activity and strategic growth amid economic challenges

Press release - 02. July 2024

Press release - 28. June 2024

Highest GDPR fine of 1.2 billion euros imposed by the Irish data protection authority in May 2023 for a breach of the rules on international data transfers. Further fines imposed by this authority in 2023 amounted to hundreds of millions of euros. The main violations are “Insufficient legal basis for data processing” and “Failure to comply with the general principles of data processing”. The next most common violation is “Insufficient technical and organizational measures to ensure information security”. Spain tops the list of countries with the most fines for the fifth year in a row, followed by Italy and Romania. Ireland, Luxembourg and France have the highest average fines and total amounts per country. Berlin – Today, international law firm CMS has published the fifth edition of its annual Enforcement Tracker Report. The English-language report shows the developments of all publicly known GDPR fines based on CMS's own online database, GDPR Enforcement Tracker. The current edition of the report covers the analysis period between March 2023 and March 2024. 510 fines were added for the past year as of the editorial deadline on 1 March 2024. This brings the total number of data protection fines since the GDPR came into effect in May 2018 to 2,225, or 2,086 if only fines with full details such as the amount of the fine, date and authority are counted. The total amount of fines since the start of the survey is around 4.5 billion euros. This means that fines of around 1.7 billion euros have been added compared to last year’s Enforcement Tracker Report. This shows that authorities are no longer shying away from imposing high fines. The average fine for the entire reporting period was around 2.1 million euros - with high fines against “big tech” companies in 2021/22 and the first fine in the billions in 2023 having a particularly heavy impact.“At the top of the list of GDPR fine triggers is, once again, insufficient legal basis and non-compliance with the general data processing principles as well as insufficient technical and organisational measures. Companies should pay particular attention to this,” says Christian Runte, lawyer and partner at the international commercial law firm CMS Germany. Dr Alexander Schmid from the Enforcement Tracker team at CMS Germany adds: “In addition to data protection authorities, the courts have also increasingly dealt with the interpretation of the GDPR. For example, the Court of Justice of the European Union has further clarified the scope of data subjects' right of access. “These rulings create more clarity, but at the same time tighten the requirements for companies, which is why, in addition to a viable compliance concept, current developments will also be decisive for them in practice in the future.”Read the full Enforcement Tracker Report here; a summary can be found here. Pressekon­takt presse@cms-hs. com

Press release - 17 April 2024An international team of CMS lawyers has provided comprehensive legal advice to Austrian Airlines AG on the sale of the Slovakian company Austrian Airlines Technik Bratislava (ATB) to the Dutch aircraft maintenance provider SAMCO Aircraft Main­ten­ance. Es­tab­lished in 2006, ATB has been offering first-class maintenance services specifically to regional aircraft operators. Closing the deal in early April, CMS supported the company’s successful sale to SAMCO Aircraft Maintenance, which expands its base maintenance footprint in Europe as a consequence. In the course of the acquisition, the CMS team contributed its international expertise in corporate law/M&A matters and also provided extensive legal advice on financing aspects and competition law. “We are excited to have supported Austrian Airlines on this transaction and are pleased that our expertise in cross-border M&A matters contributed to the smooth execution of the deal,” says Alexander Rakosi, a partner at CMS and a member of the corporate transactions team in Vienna. The CMS core transaction team consisted of partners Alexander Rakosi and Florian Mayer (both Vienna, Corporate/M&A) and attorney-at-law Martina Gavalec (Bratislava, Corporate/M&A), and was supported by partner Dieter Zandler (Vienna, Antitrust), associate Rebecca Herlitz (Vienna, Corporate), associate Ján Ševčík (Bratislava, Dispute Resolution), and legal trainee Matthias Torggler (Vienna, Corporate Transactions). On the buyer side, BarentsKrans (Netherlands) and Kinstellar (Slovakia) were involved in the transaction.